The other day I was having coffee with a fellow shop owner and we got in the conversation of social media and how it's constantly changing (PS have you seen the new Instagram Stories yet? We'll talk about that next week) and the conversation moved over to email lists and email marketing. I was surprised to hear that this friend of mine, who has a well established business and brand... didn't really care about her email list, mostly because she had one and didn't really know what to do with it.

So, me being the crazy person I am... when I'm passionate about something, I can't let it go. I want to tell the world about it so they can benefit from it too. It's okay, it wasn't her fault... she just didn't know! By the end of the conversation she was super excited about this whole other world she'd never tapped into... email marketing. I figured she couldn't be the only one. So today's post I decided to share with you 5 reasons an email list should be your TOP priority right now.

I couldn't just stop there, I figured some of you might need a little nudge in the right direction. So I put together a cheat sheet of 4 ways I used to start and grow my list to help you out. These 4 strategies I used helped me bounce from 0 to 1,500 subscribers in just a week!

If you'd rather listen to this post, just hit play below.

Alright, let's get started. Here's 5 reasons you should be focusing on your email list.

1. You get a larger reach

It's no secret that social media is constantly changing. And unless you've been hiding under a rock the past few years, you've probably noticed that Facebook, Pinterest AND Instagram changed its algorithms. Meaning, posts aren't being posted in chronological order anymore.

Which is a real bummer to us small shop owners and bloggers because even if we have a large following... only a super small percentage of your fans will see your posts. That's a HUGE decline and a real freakin' kick in the butt.

So putting all your eggs in one basket right now, couldn't be more risky. It's a surefire way to keep you business stagnant, making it nearly impossible to grow and increase sales.

But I've got good news homie, when you send an email off to your email list... it gets sent DIRECTLY to your audiences inbox.

Did you know that 90% of emails sent, get delivered successfully. Whereas only about 2-10% of your social media followers will see your posts?

Those numbers are crazy!!!

So if you're relying strictly on social media to promote your latest collection, blog post, current sale... you're screwed.

2. It drives traffic

In case you haven't heard, email is the MOST powerful platform for converting fans into paying customers.

Which is the goal right? We don't just want large followings, we want lots and lots of paying customers. Having 10k Instagram followers only makes you popular. But having 6k of them actually buying your products, is what we're doing it for. All that hard work, late nights and multiple cups of coffee... it's all for the sale, to increase revenue.

Did you know the average click through rate (the percentage of people that visit your webpage through a link or post) for social media is 0.5%?

But the average click through rate for an email sent is around 3%? (I even had one email I sent get a click through rate of 40%).

So that means you're 6X's more likely to get your audience go to your website from email... compared to social media.

Now I know it sounds like I'm totally doggin' on social media right now. Don't get me wrong, I actually love social media, and you definitely shouldn't stop putting your efforts there.

I'm just sayin' if you're not adding your email lisst to your marketing strategy, you're missing out on a WHOLE lot.

3. YOUR AUDIENCE PREFERS EMAIL FROM YOU

Contrary to what most would think, your audience prefers to hear from you via email... not social media.

If you think about it, social media was created, and still to this day, is geared more towards keeping in touch and communicating with friends and family. When someone logs into Facebook, they expect to see updates and posts from their friends and family... not businesses.

Think about why you log into Facebook... Every time you've opened up the app throughout the day. Is it because you've been dying to see the latest and greatest about your favorite brand? I'm guessing NOT.

Email is used more on a professional level. People expect information about products and services to pop up in their inbox. They're literally asking you to send them this type of information by giving you their email address in the first place.

I once read an article that said 72% of people prefer to get promotional content via email over social media.

4. YOU OWN YOUR LIST

One of the greatest parts about email lists, is that you OWN that shit.

Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram... is all company owned. Meaning they're just connecting you with their users. All your fans and followers are owned by THEM, not you!

So if Instagram was so go down tomorrow, we'd all be screwed. There would be NO way of reaching all your 10k followers ever again!!! Devastating isn't it? Let's hope that never happens.

On the other hand, your email list is exactly that... YOURS. You are the single owner of all these people contacts. You control your list and no one can take it away from you.

This is a pretty dam big incentive right there. The security of knowing it can't ever be taken away.

5. IT'S NOT GOING ANYWHERE

Believe it or not, Myspace was the largest social media network in the world... up until a few years ago (okay, maybe more than a few).

The point is, you never know when any given social media site will be the next Myspace, and completely irrelevant.

The one thing we do know is that email isn't going anywhere. It's going to be around forever. It's the numero uno way of communicating... many companies don't even have a contact phone number anymore. It's all based off an email system.

Sure, you still get ads in the mail, but email promotional content has drastically cut down the amount of wasted paper we send out into the world everyday.

Everyone loves email. It's fast. Easy to use. Quick and almost anyone can learn to use it in a matter of seconds. It's here to stay my friends.

Alright, I hope you found this post helpful... or at least got you thinking about a thing or two. Even if you haven't started your email list, it's not too late to start. I was in my business a full year and a half before I even added a "join our newsletter" form to my website. But, it's better late than never. But I want to hear from you! Comment below and let me know where you're at with your email list: have you started one? Maybe you have one but only have 50 subscribers? Maybe you have a great list but aren't doing anything with it? Maybe you want to start one but don't know where to begin? Comment below and let's chat!

Click below to get my "4 Ways To Grow Your List" cheatsheet. These are 4 things I did to start growing my email list that's helped it grow tremendously.